Forced Migration: Current Issues and Debates

With forced migration being at the forefront of political discussion, editors Alice Bloch and Giorgia Dona new timely publication Forced Migration: Current Issues and Debates provides a critical engagement with and analysis of contemporary issues in the field.

The title is a must read for all students studying forced migration and lecturers teaching their students in the field. Offers an original contribution to a growing field of study, connecting theoretical ideas and empirical research with policy, practice and the lived experiences of forced migrants.

What are the main developments you discovered about force migration in 21st’ century and why is it an important topic now?

Forced migration has become increasingly complex with greater numbers living in prolonged precarity and with fewer or no rights. There is a more disparity than ever between the top-down responses to forced migration from nation states and the bottom-up realities of the lived experiences of those who have been displaced or who try to migrate in order to seek refuge.

Forced migration is an important contemporary topic due to recent major geopolitical changes that shape patterns of migration, dynamics of human mobility and international responses to refugee crises and other forms of displacement. The intersection of the spread of new wars and increased securitization of migration have led to greater numbers fleeing persecution, generalized violence and human rights violations, and millions of displaced people who are unable to return to their countries of origin or to settle elsewhere. Most countries in the world are affected by the past and current global crises as sending countries, as receiving countries and/or transit countries where the concern is not only the displaced generation but also future generations of children and families that may experience protracted insecurity, limited rights and poverty.

Is there one piece of research included in the book which surprised you both or challenged your previous understanding of the topic of forced migration?

What is most surprising are the similarities across the chapters which show reduced rights and increased precarity be it in the global north or global south, in rural or in urban areas and regardless of the stage of the refugee cycle. Forced migrants are labelled and treated as the unwanted to be repelled or contained and as the anomaly, which does not reflect numbers, history or the current global situation.

What is the most common misconception surrounding the topic of forced migration that you would both like to clear up?

That forced migrants are a problem to be expelled once they cross a border rather than a symptom of changing geopolitical dynamics and of the post-colonial world.

You both have written books around the theme of forced migration, what drew you both to this topic of study and why?

We both started off in refugee studies and were drawn to the area of research because it was a major global issue and one that was often marginalised in the mainstream academic disciplines. We both wanted to carry out research that we thought could make a difference, however small, and as a result both of us have a long standing engagement not only with academic research but also with policy and practice.

About Alice Bloch and Giorgia Dona

Alice Bloch is Professor of Sociology at the University of Manchester. She has researched and published extensively in the area of forced migration. Recent books include: Living on the Margins: Undocumented Migrants in a Global City (published by Policy Press and co-authored with Sonia McKay) and Sans Papiers: The Social and Economic Lives of Young Undocumented Migrants in the UK (published by Pluto Press and co-authored with Nando Sigona and Roger Zetter).

Giorgia Donà is Professor of Forced Migration at the University of East London co-director of the Centre for Migration, Refugees and Belonging and Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She has researched and published extensively in the area of conflict and forced migration. Publications include Child and Youth Migration: Mobility-in-Migration in an Era of Globalisation (published by Palgrave Macmillan, co-edited with Angela Veale), Research Methodologies in Forced Migration, Special Issue for the Journal of Refugee Studies (with Eftihia Voutira), and Child and Youth Migration, Special Issue for the International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care.

Title edited by both Alice Bloch and Giorgia Dona

Current Issues and Debates, 1st Edition

Forced Migration: Current Issues and Debates provides a critical engagement with and analysis of contemporary issues in the field using inter-disciplinary perspectives, through different geographical case studies and by employing varying methodologies. The combination of authors reviewing both the…

Paperback – 2018-08-30Routledge

Title edited by Alice Bloch and Milena Chimienti

Policy, Politics, Motives and Everyday Lives, 1st Edition

A new era of international migration has been accompanied by increasingly restrictive immigration controls to manage migration to more developed countries. The consequence has been fewer routes to enter and/or stay in countries in a regularised way and as a result, an increase in the…